Road to Wosle / Osle
A traditional Haitian game played with goat knuckle bones. Students learn counting, strategy, and probability through play their grandparents know.
Vakans Ansanm · Education Pillar
A summer that belongs to Haitian youth.
Vakans Ansanm — "Vacation Together" in Kreyòl — is a community-led summer program bringing Haitian students, local teachers, and diaspora educators into the same space. We are not bringing education to Haiti. We are building a space where Haitian knowledge is centered, and the diaspora shows up in support.
Who it is for
Haitian Youth
Students aged 5 to 12, starting in Grand'Anse, with plans to expand to Cap-Haïtien and beyond. No cost to participate. Kreyòl-first instruction with multilingual support. Focus: oral history, creative play, community documentation.
Diaspora Educators
Educators, mentors, and knowledge holders who want to participate — in person or remotely. You do not need to be a certified teacher. You need relevant knowledge and a commitment to showing up on local terms.
Local Teachers
Haitian educators who lead the program, not as assistants to outside helpers but as the backbone. We are looking for Grand'Anse teachers to collaborate on curriculum and host sessions.
Program activities
Category
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Students at play · goat-bone wosle
Youth match, Grand'Anse
Foutbòl
The most universal language in Haiti. Students play together, mixing ages and neighborhoods, building trust on the field before bringing that same spirit into any learning space.
Boat testing at the stream
Ti bato
Using natural materials found near streams, students design and test tiny boats — local materials, engineering thinking, ecological knowledge in practice.
Elder and student, oral history
Istwa oral
Students learn to ask and to listen. They record stories from elders and community members. Their accounts may become part of the Lodyans archive.
Mural in progress, week three
Penti kominotè
A collective mural created over the three weeks — local stories, landscapes, and history as told by the students and their community.
The philosophy
We are still listening.
Vakans Ansanm came from the same instinct that created Lodyans: before you build anything, you listen. The program is shaped by what schools in Grand'Anse told us they needed, what students said they wanted to learn, and what local teachers said would actually work.
The diaspora's role is support, not leadership. We show up as contributors to a program whose shape is determined by the community it serves. That distinction matters more than anything else in this program's design.
Students in Vakans Ansanm can contribute to the Lodyans archive, collecting oral histories from family and community elders as part of the curriculum. Their accounts become a permanent part of the record.
Lodyans →